Gym plans changed at Va. Shore school after PTA protest

Accomack County School Superintendent W. C. Holland at the Accomack County School Board meeting on Tuesday, May 16, 2016 explains changes that have been made in plans to renovate parts of Kegotank Elementary School and build a new gymnasium there.(Photo: Staff photo by Carol Vaughn)Buy Photo

Accomack County school officials announced plans for a capital improvement project at Kegotank Elementary School have been revised after the school's PTA leadership sent families a letter critical of the project.

"I've inherited some of these things and I've made some changes," said Accomack County School Superintendent W. C. Holland, speaking at a school board meeting Tuesday.

The school board voted, with no dissent and with member Paul Bull absent, to approve the new project plan, which removes offices that were proposed to be placed at Kegotank and revises the project timeline.

The original plan was to repurpose the existing gymnasium and stage area at Kegotank, turning about 2/3 of that space into offices for the school district's technology and special education personnel, according to minutes from the April 19 school board meeting.

Those renovations were to begin "as soon as possible," according to the minutes.

But construction of a new, larger gymnasium was not to start until sometime in the summer, meaning the school would not have had a gymnasium for at least part of the upcoming school year.

Parents of Kegotank students were riled after Mike Tolbert, the school board chief of operations and management, said at a meeting in Atlantic on April 18 the school would have no gymnasium for much of the 2016-2017 school year, according to parent Elizabeth Taylor.

Taylor is a member of the school's parent advisory committee and was one of three people who spoke at the school board meeting about their concerns about the timeline for the project.

"As a member of the parent advisory committee this topic was addressed at most of our meetings regarding the progress of the project," she said, adding, "I questioned Mr. Tolbert about this project and the timelines for it. At the end of last year it was clearly apparent that we would not have the gym completed for this coming school year because the special education and technology offices were going to be the priority to allow room for STEM at Arcadia High School to expand."

At the Atlantic meeting, a monthly meeting held for constituents by Accomack County Supervisor Ron Wolff, "Tolbert clearly stated we would have no gym for all or most of the school year," Taylor said.

After that meeting, PTA officials decided to write a letter to inform other parents of the situation, she said.

Jennifer Stapleton, Kegotank PTA president, also spoke to the school board.

Stapleton said she was the person who wrote the April 21 letter and sent it home without the knowledge of the school principal.

She objected to a letter Holland sent to Kegotank parents on May 13, which said Stapleton's letter "contained many inaccuracies which may have misled parents concerning this project."

Stapleton said she was not told she had given parents inaccurate information when she talked to the head of the schools' Central Office on May 6 and again on May 11.

The PTA also was told by custodians on three or more occasions they would have to remove all PTA items from the existing gymnasium so construction could start.

"Our letter contained no inaccurate information. We gave information to our parents so that we could save our gym," Stapleton said.

Both women were critical of the school board's neglect to seek parent input in the plans.

"In the two years that this plan has been in progress, had the school board sent a letter home to the parents to inform them? Did the school board hold a meeting with the parents? Was a committee formed to ensure that necessities like bathrooms in the gym were not overlooked? The answer to these three questions is also 'No,'" Stapleton said.

Holland said in his letter that legal questions related to the project's funding prevented prior disclosure of alternatives to the existing plan. Central office staff had been preparing and reviewing alternatives to the announced project for nearly a month at his direction, he wrote.

"The new plan is student centered," Tolbert told the school board Tuesday.

The revised plan removes the offices from the building and instead includes two large classrooms and an expansion of the existing cafeteria.

"There are no offices in this plan," he said.

He said technology offices will be moved instead to a former bank building located near Arcadia High School. The school district already owns the building, which is being used for a parent resource center.

That building also will be added on to, likely over the winter, to provide enough space for both uses, he said.

Tolbert said the revision to the plan means the construction schedule can now be changed.

"We will maintain the old gym in its existing form until the new gym is complete" at Kegotank, he said.

"Offices, I can put offices anywhere. I can't put kids anywhere," Holland said, adding the new gymnasium will include two bathrooms.